Usability Study

Today I participated in a usability study with Yahoo. For those who don't know what a usability study is (I wasn't too sure until I did it today), I was in a room with several cameras and a one way mirror. There was someone interviewing me as I interacted with a website. I signed some disclosure agreement, so I'm not sure how much I can say about the study. It was an hour long and they paid me $75 in the form of an American Express gift check. I was a bit worried since I was about 10 minutes late for the study. They called me when I was one minute late (I was almost there), but then I got lost after I spoke with them. The lady who did the study was very understanding. It did end up taking the full hour. All in all, a good experience. I don't think usability studies are like focus groups, so I hope I will get selected again. The woman said I was very helpful and I think I had some good suggestions. I found out about the study by checking out the etc section of craigslist. Very helpful if you live in a big city or in a place where craigslist is popular. I did some more 2 minute surveys for usability studies at some other software companies - hope I get chosen!